Lesson 1 · Buying Time

Eight phrases that stop the freeze. By the end of this lesson you will be able to pause in English without the conversation falling apart.

Why you freeze

You said the problem is long pauses while you search for a word. Here is the useful news: the pause is not the problem. Native speakers pause constantly — they hesitate roughly as often as you do. The difference is what they put in the pause.

There is a deeper reason the words are slow, and it is not vocabulary. Two linguists, Pawley and Syder, noticed that fluent speakers are far more fluent than their knowledge of grammar can explain. If you built every sentence word by word from rules, you would be much slower than you are. Their answer: fluent speakers are not building most of what they say. They are recalling whole memorised phrases, which lets them produce a full clause in one operation — and so avoid stopping in the middle of it. — Pawley & Syder (1983)

When you speak English, you are assembling. That is why it is slow. The fix is to stop assembling and start recalling — and the cheapest place to begin is with the phrases that cover the gaps themselves.

Fillers are not bad English You were probably taught that uh, well and you know are sloppy. In research they are treated as a communication strategy: speakers use them deliberately to gain planning time while keeping control of the turn. — Utilizing fillers for addressing speaking challenges Silence hands your turn to someone else. A filled pause keeps it.

The eight phrases

Do not study these. Say each one out loud twice, now, before you read on. They need to be in your mouth, not your eyes.

A · Before you answer — buy 2–4 seconds

That's a good question. Safe everywhere. Once per conversation only — twice sounds evasive.
Let me think for a second. Buys the most time of the eight, and is completely acceptable in a meeting.
So, the way I see it… Starts the sentence before you know how it ends. Mouth first, brain catches up.

B · Mid-sentence — keep the floor

…how can I put this… Drops into the middle of a sentence. Sounds careful, not lost.
I mean, Your reset when a sentence goes wrong. Say it, restart cleanly, no apology.
…you know… Friends only. Keep it out of client calls and interviews.

C · The word won't come — repair

What's the word… Asks for help without giving up your turn. Native speakers say this constantly.
It's like a… Then describe the thing instead of naming it. Go around the missing word — never stop at it.

That last one is the most important skill on this page. When a word is missing, the instinct is to stop and hunt for it. Don't. It's like a… and then describe it: "It's like a… small bag, for money, you keep it in your pocket." Any listener gets there. The conversation never stops, and you have just bought yourself ten seconds while sounding perfectly fluent.

Drill 1 · Recall

Now produce them from memory. This will feel harder than re-reading the list above — that difficulty is the point, and it is what makes the phrases available to you tomorrow.

Drill 2 · Say it under time

The phrases only count if they arrive while you are talking. This is Paul Nation's 4·3·2: the same talk three times, with less time each round. Speed rises across repetitions — and so do grammatical accuracy and complexity, which is the surprising part. — Nation (2007), The Four Strands

I have shortened it to 2·1½·1 minutes for a first attempt. Speak out loud, alone, no notes. Every time you hesitate, use one of the eight phrases instead of going quiet.

The only rule Do not stop, and do not correct your grammar. If you run out of ideas, repeat what you already said in different words. We are training speed here; accuracy is a different strand of work and fixing it mid-flow destroys the effect being trained.

Your one tangible win

You now have eight phrases that turn a broken silence into a normal pause. That is the whole lesson. In your next English call, use one of them deliberately, on purpose, and notice that nothing bad happens.

Read or watch this

Then do this, ten minutes: open YouGlish, search "how can I put this", and listen to five real speakers say it. Copy the rhythm out loud. Hearing a chunk in real mouths is what turns it from a written phrase into something you can actually say.

Ask me anything. I am your teacher for this, not just the author of this page. If a phrase feels wrong in your mouth, if you cannot tell whether something is too informal for your work calls, if the paper is hard, or if this lesson was too easy or too hard — just say so in our conversation and I will adjust what comes next.